Dan Loeb’s Third Point Holds Kraft; Seems to be Short Treasuries

Earlier this week we posted Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC shareholder letter for the second quarter. Loeb discusses politics, the European crisis, and various holdings of his. We have just obtained the fund’s stat sheet for July, which gives us further exclusive new details.

The year to date return for the fund is 5.5%. For July the fund returned 1.6%. The flagship hedge fund currently has $4.5 billion in Assets under management (AUM). The total assets of the firm are currently, $8.9 billion. Both total AUM and AUM for the main hedge fund have increased over the past month.

Net equity exposure increased from 27% in June, to 35% in July. Loeb’s fund has net credit exposure of 29.3% and ‘other’ at 5.5%. What is very interesting is the new category Loeb adds to the stat sheet titled ‘macro.’ This is the second time we have seen a macro category for Loeb (readers can see the contrast with May’s sheet).

With value investors increasingly stating that the macro environment has caused very high correlations, some have begun to look more at the macro picture. Macro consists of Gold (net long 5.5%), Government (unclear what the meaning is), and tail risk (black swan) strategies. Loeb is 5.5% net long Gold, and 19% net short Government. We are not sure if this means treasuries, Sovereign debt, or credit default swaps. However, Loeb’s top losing position is titled ‘Government Short’, we believe that he is short Treasuries. This would also make sense, since treasuries had a solid month overall in July.

The hedge fund is 70% net long in US equities, 10% net short in Asia, and 4% net short in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Top holdings of the fund across asset classes and geography, in descending order:

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). We have written dozens of articles on Dan Loeb’s proxy war with Yahoo! Inc., which readers can find here. Loeb is now on the board after winning a successfully proxy battle with management.

Gold (GLD) as mentioned above. This holding has not changed.

Delphi Automotive PLC (NYSE:DLPH) is another large holding. Loeb owns both the equity and the debt. He detailed his rationale in his second quarterly letter.

Loeb held 13,339,711 shares of Delphi Automotive PLC (NYSE:DLPH) valued at $26.41 equaling approximately 352 million worth of equity. John Paulson is another large holder of both Delphi Automotive debt and stock.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Loeb explains in detail why he is bullish on Apple in his first quarter letter.

The newest position is Kraft Foods Inc. (NASDAQ:KFT). The new position in KFT was not disclosed in the second quarter level. Kraft Foods Inc. (NASDAQ:KFT) is now the fifth largest holding. The letter does not mention whether the holding is a short or long.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) has dropped off the list. The mystery remains about what the holding is. We thought Loeb was long the equity. Katya Watchel of Reuters, reports that Loeb is long on the debt. Loeb did not mention Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) in the second quarter letter either.

One of the top winners for the month is Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Loeb likely owns the debt. Seth Klarman’s Baupost Group, and many other large value hedge fund managers bought the debt at fire-sale prices.